Future State Vision + Strategy For Giftcards.com

Company

Giftcards.com

Role

UX Designer

Expertise

Vision + Strategy

Year

2024

Context

Project Overview

Role and Scope

Briefly describe the project, focusing on the problems or opportunities you identified on GiftCards.com. Emphasize the reasons why a future-state design was needed (e.g., usability challenges, business goals, or new market opportunities).

Define your role in the project and how you contributed to the future-state design. Mention the tools and methodologies used (e.g., research, personas, wireframes, prototyping).

Stage 1.0 (under Zia leadership)

Future-State Vision

Design Objectives: Clearly outline your design goals for the future state, such as improving user engagement, simplifying navigation, or driving higher sales.

Solution Concept: Present your design solution, explaining how it directly addresses the problem and meets user needs. Use visuals like wireframes or mockups to illustrate the future-state design.
Key Features: Highlight the key elements of the future-state design, explaining why you chose those features based on user research.

Strategy

Problem Statement

Clearly articulate the existing problems in the current state (e.g., low conversion rates, poor user engagement). Use qualitative and quantitative data to demonstrate the issues.
Outline the key pain points or limitations from both the business and user perspectives.

Research and Insights

User Research: Discuss the user research you conducted to understand the target audience, such as interviews, surveys, usability testing, or data analysis.
Business Research: Highlight the market or business trends that informed your design decisions.
Key Insights: Present insights derived from research, showing what the users’ needs and pain points were.

Future-State Vision

Design Objectives: Clearly outline your design goals for the future state, such as improving user engagement, simplifying navigation, or driving higher sales.
Solution Concept: Present your design solution, explaining how it directly addresses the problem and meets user needs. Use visuals like wireframes or mockups to illustrate the future-state design.
Key Features: Highlight the key elements of the future-state design, explaining why you chose those features based on user research.

Design Process

Ideation and Prototyping: Walk through your design process, showing how you iterated on the future-state design. Discuss the different design approaches you considered and why you chose the final one.

Insert Images and compare and contrast the differences

Highlight Expected Business & User Impacts

- Predict tangible outcomes based on design changes, such as:
  - Potential increase in sales and user retention.
  - Improved navigation, reducing friction in the user journey.
  - Enhanced user engagement through personalized experiences.
- Provide data-backed justifications for these predictions (e.g., previous trends, testing results).

Stage 2.0 (post zia-my leadership)

Future State Roadmap

Future-State Roadmap:
- Define a phased approach for implementing the future-state design (e.g., MVP, testing, full implementation).
- Ensure the roadmap aligns with business timelines and technical capabilities.
Articulate the Strategic Value:
- Emphasize the long-term business value of your future-state design (e.g., positioning GiftCards.com for growth, scalability, and user loyalty).
- Frame yourself as a strategic partner in business transformation, not just a designer.
Conclusion & Next Steps:

Summarize the potential benefits and how this future-state design prepares GiftCards.com for evolving market needs.
Discuss any next steps for full implementation and future iterations.